The Doctrine Of Pastor Kendrick Murray

Pastor Kendrick Murray

The Doctrine Of Pastor Kendrick Murray

I was sent an email asking me three questions:

1.) Is Pastor Kendrick Murray Oneness?

2.) Does Pastor Kendrick Murray preach two Gods?

3.) Is Pastor Kendrick Murray Apostolic?

The answer to these questions can be found below. I have examined Pastor Murray's statement of Doctrine and also viewed a couple of his videos on the Oneness of God. My comments are from these sources. Links are provided so you can hear his words for yourself.
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The Godhead statement of faith of Pastor Kendrick Murray is as follows:

GODHEAD

There is only one God.
Jesus is presently the Son of God in heaven.
Jesus (son of God) came down from heaven as the Word.
The word was made flesh and dwelt among us.
The word that came down from heaven inherited the same name as the father which is Jesus.
Jesus was put to death in the flesh and that same Jesus (flesh and bone) was resurrected and went back to heaven and is on the right hand of God and lives by the power of God.
That same Jesus is coming back for the church.
That same Jesus will reign until the last enemy is destroyed which is death.

This was copied on 9-16-2011 and found at the following internet URL: http://www.sonofgodlives.org/website/beliefs.htm
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His oneness video is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7kzWHHpbls&feature=youtu.be
Additional video here: http://www.sonofgodlives.org/website/media/asx/kissimmeefl_fellowship_04172011.asx (In this video, it appears Pastor R. L. Randolph and the members of the Outreach Church of Jesus in Kissimmee, Florida have committed to defend Murray's doctrines).
And here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=utXdzW2_-kc&feature=related (The glorified body of Jesus was not God).

From Pastor Murray's statement of faith and his videos we can glean the following:

1.) There is one God and one Son of God, two distinct spirit beings. He made it clear in answer to a question about Jesus and God in heaven: that there is one God in heaven and there is also one Lord Jesus Christ. By this he meant there were two in heaven and one of them was not God differentiating between God and Jesus.

2.) Jesus is not God in heaven right now, he is only the Son of God in heaven right now. Who is God right now then? As we follow Pastor Murray in his doctrine, we only have to look to the left of the Son of God and see God the Father sitting there as God. Do we have one God here now or two? And if only one God, then Jesus as the Son of God is not God? And if Jesus as the Son of God is God, then there is two Gods here in Pastor Murray's "Son of God in heaven now" doctrine.

3.) According to Pastor Murray, Jesus is not the Father, therefore Jesus and the Father cannot be the same God or person. He says: "they are one but not the same one."

4.) The Word (son of God), came down from heaven as the pre-existing Jesus. Jesus was then the Word incarnated. God the Father was not incarnated in Jesus. Pastor Murray teaches the distinction between God the Father and Jesus the Word, making two distinct and separate persons in his Godhead.

5.) Jesus as the Word is a separate person from God the Father according to trinitarians and Pastor Murray. In his treatment of John 1:1, he refused to confess the Word that is God was also the Father.

6.) According to Pastor Murray, the Father and the Word are not the same person. This can only mean there are two distinct persons in the Godhead, the Father and the Word, which he makes the pre-existing Son of God. I listened carefully to catch if he believed the Word was the only begotten Son of God. He did say the Word was the Son of God. He never explained how the Word became the begotten Son of God. I think his answer is that God created the Word. But we will have to wait and see him explain how the Word came into existence as the Son of God.

Ok, I think I found it. He had his reader to fetch up Isaiah 43:10. He inferred that the God created here was the Word. And there will be no other God created. "Before me (the Word) there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me."  This can mean nothing then but that the Father created the Word as a separate God, making two gods.

7.) In his video on the Oneness of God, Pastor Murray uses his wife and his son as examples of he and they being separate persons, yet he said they were one. He did not mean they were one person because he clearly said they were two distinct persons. He said they were one but one in unity. To prove this unity he used scripture how a husband and wife were called one flesh by marriage. But he never said: "his wife was the express image of himself." And he did not say: "when you have seen my wife you have seen me, or when you have seen me you have seen my wife." He faked the comparison of he and his wife with the words of Jesus that when Philip saw him, he saw the Father. Pastor Murray's analogy makes the words of Jesus a lie. Jesus did not show Philip the Father separate from himself as Pastor Murray demonstrated between he and his wife and he and his son. Jesus should have told Philip when he saw him he saw the Son of God and not the Father if Pastor Murray's doctrine was true. Pastor Murray copied the husband and wife fairy tale from Trinitarians and used it show how Jesus and the Father are one. What Pastor Murray accomplished in his examples is to prove that the Godhead is like he and his separate wife and he and his separate son: as they are distinct separate beings and spirits so is Jesus and God the Father. This is not Oneness or Apostolic doctrine.

8.) In the above statement of faith Pastor Murray says Jesus as the Word came down from heaven. In his video on the Oneness of God, he made the statement that the Oneness and Apostolic doctrine of God being Father in creation and Son in redemption was false. He said it was a lie. What he is doing is confessing he does not believe in sequential Modalism or simultaneous Modalism. He is not a Monarchian Modalist at all. He is not a Monarchian Patripassian at all. He is not of the doctrine of Noetus, Praxeas, or Sabellius. And he is not of the doctrine of Jesus or the Apostles. According to Pastor Murray, Jesus was a pre-existing God the Word separate from God the Father who was manifested in the flesh. He had his reader to read John 1:1 and said the Word was “with” God and put emphasis on “with” to mean there were two of them in eternity. This can mean nothing but two Gods since he went on to say the Word was God, meaning Jesus was God, then denying Jesus was the Father. He refused to say the Word was the Father or in any way of the Father's person or Spirit. There can be no other conclusion here but that Pastor Murray is preaching two Gods.

9.) Once he separates Jesus as the pre-existing Word from the Father, and makes each of them a separate God, he then says it was the Word who was the Son of God that came down and was made flesh and dwelt among us. So, Jesus was not the Father at all manifested in the flesh, it was Pastor Murray's second God the Word who was manifested in the flesh. There can be no other conclusion here but that there are two sons of God now. The eternal Son of God, Jesus the pre-existing Word, and the human son of God Jesus. According to his doctrine, the Word became the fleshly body and therefore Jesus the Word came to earth. Jesus is then both Divine in his God-Spirit being the Word and his flesh is God-flesh, the Word made flesh. This forces the doctrine of divine flesh upon Jesus and removes him from being the son of David according to the flesh. Pastor Murray now has a Divine Son of God, the Word, and the Divine Son of God, the flesh or the Word made flesh, and this makes for another God or person in the existing Godhead of the Father and the Son. There is the Father, the Word, and the human Son of God. Pastor Murray now has two sons of God, one which is a Spirit and the second which is flesh, bone, and blood. This can only be explained by claiming Jesus the son of man was a sequential modalistic form of God the Son, the eternal Word. So far as I know this modalistic doctrine has never been preached before in the history of the Church. It is indeed another gnostic doctrine with an Arian basis. This is not Oneness or Apostolic doctrine. It is Pastor Murray's doctrine. This is a modified form of Gnosticism, Monophysitism, and Arianism. It has pre-natal trinitarianism stamped all over it.

10.) He says the Word came down from heaven and inherited the name of the Father. This again proves his doctrine of two separate God persons. The Father had the name Jesus and now the Word will take on the Father’s name in Bethlehem as his own. He does not give the Word the name Jesus while this divine God was with the Father. It is only when the Word becomes flesh Pastor Murray says he inherited the Father’s name Jesus. So there are now two Jesus’. The first Jesus is the Father and the second Jesus is the Word made flesh. There are then two Jesus’ in the Godhead. This means there are two Lords in the Godhead. It means there are two Spirits in the Godhead. And it means there are two distinct separate bodies in the Godhead. When you pray to Jesus you must distinguish Father Jesus from the Son Jesus. This is not in keeping with Ephesians 4:4. It would certainly be idolatry to worship Jesus if he was not God. His teachings are not Oneness or Apostolic doctrine. This is modern Gnosticism invented by Pastor Murray.  We will see who all flocks to him and accepts his apostasy and heresies.

11.) Pastor Murray turns to Jesus, and says he was put to death in the flesh. What he is saying here is that the Divine Word was put to death, since he made the Divine Word the human flesh. So the Word part that was with God was put to death when the Word came to the earth as the Son of God. How is it that something God can die? If Pastor Murray's Jesus has divine flesh, how can it die? It is impossible for God to even choose to die. How can he say the flesh of Jesus was not God when he said the flesh body was the Word made flesh? He has greatly contradicted himself. This is not Oneness or Apostolic doctrine. This is nonsense. He is preaching another Jesus and another gospel. He is not really a true Bible Christian. Pastor Murray says the Word was God and became flesh (quoting John 1:1 and John 1:14). But now he claims the flesh was not God and could die. Now he says the Word is not God while it was flesh. Additionally he said Jesus was the Word come to the earth as flesh and then when the Word flesh went back to heaven it was not God any more. Did the Word lose being God while in the flesh and now for all eternity is no longer God? Is this why the Word gone back to heaven can only live by the power of God? He clearly said when Jesus went back to heaven as the Word that he was not God. He goes further to say the Word which was God in flesh, that flesh that was glorified was not God (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=utXdzW2_-kc&feature=related). Over the 33-1/2 years of Jesus life, when did the Word that became flesh cease to be God? Now if Pastor Murray is saying the Divine Word, Son of God was not put to death, and only the Divine Word flesh was put to death, then he needs to explain how anything that is God can die. And did the Word that was with God die. It is he who has made the flesh of Jesus a Divine being by saying the flesh was the incarnation of the Word that was with God. I am not at all confused by his Monophysitism, Gnosticism, and Arian doctrines. I am not at all misunderstanding him either. I am not misrepresenting him. When he makes a statement we have every right to expect the meaning to carry with it all of its implications. To say the Son of God was put to death in the flesh can mean only one of two things: first the Word was put to death in the flesh, and if so the eternal Son of God was put to death; and second, or the human Jesus was put to death in whom the Divine Word was incarnated. In this theory, Jesus was at no time the Father and the Son. And the Father was not in the world reconciling the world unto himself. Pastor Murray forces us to reinterpret the name "GOD" in each passage to see if it applies to the Father or to Jesus as the pre-existing Word. In Pastor Murray's confusing doctrine, it was not then the Divine Word that died on the Cross but merely the body in which the Divine Word dwelt. In this case, the Father is no where around and so Pastor Murray is not Patripassian at all. He does not follow the doctrine of the Apostles, or the other champions such as Noetus, Praxeas, or Sabellius. A great error of Pastor Murray is his doctrine on two sons of God. He has the Word that was with God as the Son of God. And he has the fleshly body Mary birthed as the Son of God. So what do we have here? We have one eternal unbegotten Son of God, the Word, and one temporal begotten Son of God, Jesus. Or, does Pastor Murray teach both Sons of God are begotten and there is no such thing as one only begotten Son?

12.) He then claims this Jesus of flesh and bone went back to heaven and sits on the right hand of God and lives by the power of God. This Jesus does not live of himself being the Word, his very life after Calvary depends on God his Father for all eternity. This proves again either two persons here or two gods. Pastor Murray says Jesus is in heaven as flesh and bone? So, Jesus has a flesh and bone body now in heaven? This is unscriptural and has no Apostolic support. This again shows us that in Pastor Murray's doctrine, the Father has no flesh and bone body and is Spirit. But the Word now has a flesh and bone body and it is not Spirit. Two persons here: one which is Spirit and one which is flesh and bone. This is not Oneness or Apostolic doctrine. To have a flesh and bone Jesus sitting next to an invisible Spirit God whom he said is the Father, shows us he does believe in two persons and two gods. If he claims Jesus here is not God sitting on the right hand of the Father, he must then deny he was the Word. If he claims Jesus sitting next to the Father is not two distinct Gods, then he needs to clearly say he does not believe Jesus is God and that it was only a man who sits on the right hand of God. Pastor Murray cannot have one God sitting next to another God and there not be two Gods. In which case he is not Oneness at all and he is not Apostolic. We can identify him with second century Gnostics who at that time still held to many Apostolic doctrines and claiming to be Apostolic. Pastor Murray is Binitarain. He is not Oneness and no true Oneness would accept his doctrine.

13.) Pastor Murray claims the same Jesus which was flesh and bone in heaven is coming back for the Church. It is simple here, he believes one God will be in heaven while the second God of rank comes back for the Church. This is two Gods no matter how much he or his disciples will deny it.

14.) He confuses the one God even additionally by pointing to a time when one God will give to another God all that he possessed as the Son of God. This again is two Gods.

Pastor Murray is not preaching Oneness or Apostolic doctrine. What he is doing is preaching the Binitarian doctrine of Arianism and mixing in Gnosticism, Monophysitism, Dynamic Monotheism, and Nestorian philosphies. He is very close to the doctrine of the Jehovah’s Witnesses. He straight out denies the Father was manifested in the Son. And he certainly denies Jesus as Immanuel as being the one and only God with us. He has Jesus as the second God of rank, the Word who was with God the Father, as the Immanuel.  He clearly says Jesus and the Father are not the same God. He continually yelled that Jesus and the Father were "one" but he said they were "NOT THE SAME ONE." Therefore he claims there are two. He can deny he is teaching two Gods but his speech doth betray him.

Is Pastor Kendrick Murray a true Oneness or Apostolic?
No, he is Binitarian and some form of Gnostic Arian while holding on to some of our other Apostolic doctrines. He actually mocks and ridicules Oneness Apostolic people.
Is he a Patripassian Modalist? No!
Is he two God? Yes!

Now if my addressing this false doctrine of two gods leads anyone to join Pastor Kendrick Murray, they never were Oneness or Apostolic in the first place.
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Special note: it was this very Son of God in heaven doctrine that Bishop S. C. Johnson opposed. When you look at the second image above you can see what Bishop Johnson was opposing among the trinitarians. His "no son of God" in heaven now, was against the theory that Jesus was the eternal second person in the trinity, the Word. And he opposed the theory that when Jesus went to heaven he returned to being the eternal second person, the Word. Bishop Johnson did not deal with Pastor Murray's private interpretation that Jesus was never the Father only the Son of God.
Pastor Murray is teaching the Catholic doctrine of the trinity that the Son of God is not the Father. Here Pastor Murray teaches the flesh body sonship of Jesus and also the second person sonship of the Word. By this, Pastor Murray denies Jesus ever was the Father.
Bishop Johnson opposed the theory Jesus needed his earthly body of flesh and bones in heaven. He taught the image of this body by which it was made, is what Jesus went back to heaven in and remains. He taught the Son of God body does not exist any more. What exist is the eternal form of God back into which Jesus returned as Almighty God. He believed Jesus had the power to take up the body and lay it down (John 10:18). According to him, God took up the body for 33 and 1/2 years which he did not need in the spiritual realm as Almighty God, and he laid it back down the moment Jesus disappeared into heaven. Bishop Johnson equated the Son of God to the fleshly body of Jesus just as Pastor Murray does. But Pastor Murray denies Jesus was the Father and the Son in the one body. Bishop Johnson did not hold this Catholic doctrine. For this reason, I question if Pastor Murray ever was a true Apostolic Oneness. If he was he departed from it when he took up the Catholic doctrine of the Father separate and distinct from the Son.
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Bishop Reckart
Jesus And God The Father Are One God, Isaiah 9:6